The Four Virtues: Presence, Heart, Wisdom, Creation

by Tobin Hart

Find meaning, wholeness, and spiritual depth with this field guide to the inner life that explores and integrates four essential Presence, Heart, Wisdom, and Creation.

In a world with greater knowledge, more advanced technology, and more groundbreaking innovation than ever at our fingertips, we are still looking to find our way. We are still searching for that essential insight on how to lead a really good life.

By drawing from across tradition and time, from neuroscience to ancient wisdom, Tobin Hart reveals that we all possess four essential virtues—Presence, Heart, Wisdom, Creation—that help us to build, balance, and integrate our psychological and spiritual life on earth. While these virtues may be universal, the way they live in each of us is unique. With the Spiritual Assessment Matrix (SAM) and expert practices and tools, this highly accessible, thought-provoking guide shows us how to grow and activate these powers from the inside out. When in balance, these four virtues serve as a field guide to the inner life, bringing you heart and wisdom as well as helping you recognize beauty, rekindle awe, and find your own voice.

Genres: Philosophy

384 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2014

About the author

Tobin Hart, Ph.D. is a father, professor, psychologist, speaker, and author of The Secret Spiritual World of Children. He has spent more than thirty years as a researcher and ally helping students, clients, and patients integrate their psychological and spiritual lives. He serves as professor of psychology at the University of West Georgia, as well as co-founder and president of the ChildSpirit Institute, a nonprofit educational and research hub exploring the spirituality of children and adults. He has interviewed with Oprah, local and national television, radio, and print media in North America. He is sought out as an expert resource and keynote on children, spirituality, psychology, and education. He serves on various advisory boards, think-tanks, and organizations.

Reviews

[Leen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book that I got when I decided to be a more spiritual person. It gave me a strong foundation to be someone who is aware of what’s happening inside me.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But these are not the four cardinal virtues" was my first thought, so why not cut the "the"? Well, apparently, these four virtues are important as well, and they are - and Tobin Hart goes through every one of them with divided into fours subchapters to address different aspects of the virtues. My favorite was "wisdom", and reading it in this way was simply amazing and very good - Hart manages to pinpoint so many aspects about wisdom and is able to give depth and widen our usual scope of what it is all about. My first impression about the book(that held to the end), however, was that Hart includes too many voices so that his own drowns. He cites from philosophers and laypersons, from Jesus and Buddha, from Christians and from Eastern religions, from Scientist and from mysticists. There is no clear idea behind it all, there is no one guiding ideology, no favorable leanings to detect(except for all this has an eastern vibe to it, he does a good job not to be biased that way) - and thus it feels sometimes a bit all over the place. Sometimes however this approach seems like the right thing to do since it gives us insight and teachings from a much broader reality than just one. For what is worth though, it is worth a lot to have a book like this around and shedding light on some not so obvious, but very important virtues or character traits.

[Laura Luzzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic.

[Nada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com...

The four virtues of the book are presence, heart, wisdom, and creation. Presence is the "opening of consciousness to perceive beauty." Heart is "the opening for a life informed by compassion and passion." Wisdom is "the ability to see beyond what is given into new possibility." Creation is "how we bring ourselves authentically into the world both through our doing and being." In other words, this is book about a philosophy of life - not based on any dogma or rather on certain guiding principles.

The book is very consistently organized. The book is divided into four parts, each focused on one virtue. Each part is further divided into five chapters. The first presents the idea behind the virtue, culling stories and examples from literature, history, science, philosophy, various belief traditions, and individual accounts. The remaining four chapters of each part discuss aspects of developing that virtue. Each chapter has an explanation of the skill, followed by a quiz to assess where you stand right now, and then a list of practices to help develop that skill.

The ideas in this book are not new; however, they are well organized and well presented. The examples are varied and not based on any one ideology. The quizzes are quick and fun and can be insightful. The practices are discrete and concrete. Thus, the book brings structure and intent to what are broad based principles.

I can see keeping this book on my shelf and referring to it periodically when I need to center myself. I can also see giving it to certain friend who enjoy this type of spiritual analysis and reading. A positive new addition to self-help genre.

*** Reviewed based on publisher's galley received through NetGalley ***

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent characteristics and virtues to reflect upon, and, if one is part of a religious tradition, to connect to one's religious tradition.